Filing tray



Nov. 14, 1967 J. D. LEAR ETAL 3,352,302

FILING TRAY Filed May 17, 1965 25 Sheets-Sheet 1 i FIG.1 I 1 1 5 I 'T g x INVENTOR5 Err-ac M. Ho i' Y Joacph D. Lear Nov. 14, 1967 J. 0. LEAR ETAL FILING TRAY 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 17, 1965 INVENTORS Enc M. HoH Joseph D. Lear Nov. 14, 1967 J. D. LEAR ETAL 3,352,302

' FILING TRAY Filed May 17, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS Enc. HoH' B Joseph Lcar United States Patent 3,352,302 FILING TRAY Joseph D. Lear, Snyder, and Eric M. Holt, East Aurora, N.Y., assignors to Posting Equipment Corporation, Buffalo, N.Y.

Filed May 17, 1965, Ser. No. 456,256 2 Claims. (Cl. 12916) This invention relates to improvements in card filing trays.

It is an object of the invention to provide a filing tray wherein the cards are disposed in an ideal position to the user, for both optical and physical reference. This is accomplished by constructing a filing tray with means to receive and to support cards angularly with reference to the sides of the tray so that, in effect, the operator views a body of cards as a parallelogram from the best vantage point of observation and use.

It is a further object of the invention to proportion the filing tray in a novel manner so that when the trays are used in groups the same advantages accrue, and, additionally, pure geometric group arrangements result which are greatly desirable in numerous types of filing units both from space and labor saving considerations.

These and other objects of the invention are more specifically set forth in the accompanying specification and drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the tray of the invention as used on a desk shelf.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a similar tray with the cards removed to show the spacer structure.

FIG. 3 is a section on the line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a section on the line 44 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is an enlargement of a portion of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view similar to FIGURE 3 showing different spacer structure.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary section on the line 7-7 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a top view of a rotary index unit containin g six trays of the type shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a side elevation of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a top view of three trays of different angular disposal mounted on a table unit with an adjoining table unit shown in dot-dash lines.

FIG. 11 is a side elevation of the table unit of FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic top view of trays of the type of FIG. 10 disposed in parallel spaced rows.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3 it will be seen that the tray is advantageously an integral structure, such as might be provided by an aluminium extrusion, having a flat bottom 21 and slightly angular sides 22 and 23. The sides 22 and 23 terminate in short horizontal spacing flanges 22a and 23a which serve to abut other tray flanges when trays are disposed in side-by-side relation (dot and dash lines FIG. 3). The ends 25 and 26 of the tray 20 are parallel and cut angularly so that the acute angles are 60 to the sides 22 and 23 of the tray in this embodiment of the invention (FIG. 2). The bottom is spaced from the desk top or other supporting surface by marginal channel formation 27 which receives plastic inserts 28 for protecting the top against abrasion.

Rectangular card spacers 30 are disposed at regular intervals within the tray 20 in parallelism to the ends 25 and 26 and they are preferably formed of a flexible material such as hard rolled steel. Lugs 31 project from the bottom of each spacer 30 and each lug is formed with an outwardly projecting offset or hook portion 32. Spaced pairs of slots 33 are pierced in the tray bottom 21 in parallelism to the ends 25 and 26. It will be seen in FIG. 2 that each slot 33 is slightly tapered toward the adjoining sides of the tray so that the spacer 30 may be bent (dot and dash lines, FIG. 2) to permit entry of the lugs 31 in a 3,352,392 Patented Nov. 14-, 1967 pair of slots 33, and then released to permit the hook 1 the vertical (FIGS. 4 and 5 Groups of cards C are disposed loosely between the spacers 30 so that adjacent cards may be spread at any desired point of cleavage C (FIG. 1) to disclose a particular card at an angle to the eyes of the operator. During such operations the spacers fully support the card masses and retain the cards in parallel order. It will be noted that any tendency of the spacers 30 to creep out of the slots 33 during their angular movement is prevented by the locking effect of the hook portion 32.

Another form of the lug structure is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 wherein the lugs 31a are provided with terminal bosses 32a instead of the hook portions 32 of the described embodiment. In this case the spacers 30a need not be sprung, but are vertically inserted in the slots 33a, which permits close clearance of the bosses 32a upon such vertical insertion. It will be seen however, that in their natural angular position (FIG. 7), the spacers are irremovable, since the bosses 32a act as stop means.

An important physical advantage of the described structure lies in the support afforded to the spacers 30 by the sides of the sides of the tray, where under heavy load conditions, the spacers rest against one side of the tray, and thus, the load of a card body is not concentrated on an end spacer but rather is distributed with fair uniformity along a side of the tray. It will be seen that the angle of the tray sides is such that the spacers are roughly parallel thereto when inclined.

When used as a single reference file as in FIG. 1, the proportions of the tray (i.e. the length of the tray with respect to the width of the diagonal front) is relatively unimportant, however, when used in multiple, such proportions become highly significant in many adaptations. It is proposed that the length of the tray be a multiple of the diagonal width, so that in the case of FIG. 2 where the ratio is 2 to 1, two identical trays may be placed side by side to form a diamond D having equal sides and having opposed acute angles of 60, this is best shown in FIG. 8 where pairs of trays 20 form three diamonds D,

" which are arranged to present a regular hexagon or reference unit H. The unit H is mounted on a similarly shaped table 40 which in turn is supported for rotary movement on a centrally located bearing pedestal 41. The rotary index thus formed, has three optimum viewing points indicated at A, A1, and A2 (FIG. 8) where full accessibility to a complete diamond D is available. For example an operator, seated at O, with station A rotated to the relative position shown, has a radius R of arm movement which encompasses the entire diamond. Visually,

' all of the cards C in such diamond are viewed from an angle as previously described.

It is not intended to limit the invention to the 60 arrangement of FIGS. 1 to 8 nor to the number of trays in a diamond. For example in FIGS. 10 and 11 the acute angles of the trays 2011 are 45 and three trays are arranged to form a diamond D1. It will be obvious that in this case the length to diagonal width ratio is 3 to 1 so that a perfect diamond is presented. For examplary purposes the diamond D1 is shown mounted on a diamond shaped table T to form a maneuverable device which may be arranged with a second unit table T1 (dot and dash lines) to form an index which may be positioned in a corner. The second table T1 may carry trays 20c which are identical to the trays 2011 except that they are of 0pposite hand thus forming a left handed diamond D2.

In large index systems, the general arrangement shown in FIG. 12 is familiar to those skilled in the art, where it consists of two spaced rows R and R1 of files between which an operator moves, on a track mounted chair 50. In using the present trays in such a system, the 45 type ofFIGS. 10 and 11 prove most advantageous for reference to the operator. It will be seen that the upper row R consists of diamond D1 disposed in parallelism while the lower row R1 is composed of left hand diamonds D2 similarly arranged.

It will be obvious that the invention is susceptible to numerous other variants without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims wherein we claim:

1. An index device comprising a tray structure having a relatively fiat parallelogrammic base with opposing sides extending upwardly from said base, said sides each forming an obtuse angle with said base, the extremities of said tray structure each being cut at an angle relative to said sides and perpendicular to said base to form open ends, said extremities being parallel to each other, a plurality of thin rectangular spacers arranged in spaced parallel relation to each other on said base and in parallelism to said angular extremities of the tray, said spacers extending from side to, side of said tray on said base, means mounting each spacer on said base for limited pivotal movement relative to the vertical, and groups of rectangular cards disposed between pairs of spacers, said cards being of substantially the same width as said spacers and being guidably supported by said spacers for pivotal movement on said tray base, said cards contacting the sides of the tray for additional support when in extreme angular positions.

2. An index device comprising a tray structure having a fiat base with two parallel margins, opposing sides extending upwardly from said margins of the base, said sides each forming an obtuse angle with base, a plurality of thin rectangular spacers all arranged in spaced parallel relation to each other and in angular relation to the margin of said base, means for mounting each spacer on said base for limited pivotal movement relative to the vertical, and groups of rectangular cards disposedbetween pairs of spacers and extending from side to side of said tray on the base thereof for pivotal movement on said tray base under guidance of said spacers, said cards contacting the obtuse sides of the tray for additional support in extreme angular positions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 875,829 1/1908 La Rue .129-16 2,012,035 8/1935 Clark 129--16 2,153,123 4/1939 Ruck 12916 2,249,549 7/1941 Swimmer 129-16 2,493,538 1/1950 Karns 129--16 2,599,802 6/1952 Yzetta 129-16 2,974,803 3/1961 Humphrey 12916 FOREIGN PATENTS 945,291 4/1947 France.

947,140 1/1949 France. 1,062,217 7/1959 Germany.

431,453 3/ 1948 Italy.

134,195 1/1952 Sweden.

JEROME SCHNALL, Primary Examine): 

2. AN INDEX DEVICE COMPRISING A TRAY STRUCTURE HAVING FLAT BASE WITH PARALLEL MARGINS, OPPOSING SIDES EXTENDING UPWARDLY FROM SAID MARGINS OF THE BASE, SAID SIDES EACH FORMING AN OBTUSE ANGLE WITH BASE, A PLURALITY OF THIN RECTANGULAR SPACERS ALL ARRANGED IN SPACED PARALLEL RELATION TO EACH OTHER AND IN ANGULAR RELATION TO THE MARGIN OF SAID BASE, MEANS FOR MOUNTING EACH SPACER ON SAID BASE FOR LIMITED PIVOTAL MOVEMENT RELATIVE TO THE VERTICAL, AND GROUPS OF RECTANGULAR CARDS DISPOSED BETWEEN PAIR OF SPACERS AND EXTENDING FROM SIDE TO SIDE OF SAID TRAY ON THE BASE THEREOF FOR PIVOTAL MOVEMENT ON SAID TRAY BASE UNDER GUIDANCE OF SAID SPACERS, SAID CARDS CONTACTING THE OBTUSE SIDES OF THE TRAY FOR ADDITIONAL SUPPORT IN EXTREME ANGULAR POSITIONS. 